The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-06-04
DEAD-LETTER OFFICE.
An Entertaining Account of It's
Business Methods.
One of the Most Interesting Branches OF
the United States Postal Department
How the Mail Matter is CLASH
fed and Disposed of.

ned ana Disposed of.
''Death from inadvertence or death
from old age" is the way that Mr..
Perry, the Chief Clerk of the Dead
Letter Office, designates the two classes
into which all mail matter that comes
to the Office is divided. That classified
ton was made, however, in the course
of conversation with Star reporter.
In official utterances more stately Ian
guage is used, and when Mr.. Baird, the
superintendent pens his annual report
he divides all mail matter that is
handled by the Office into unavailable
matter and unclaimed, OF dead matter
proper. Matter belonging to both
classes may be regarded as dead as soon
as it is sent to the Dead-Letter Office,
but, owing to the improved methods
adopted and the skill and ingenuity of
those engaged in the work, death, in a
large proportion of cases, proves to be
only comatose condition-a case of
syncope, which skillful application of
restoratives overcomes. The letter
then goes forward with renewed vicor
to its destination. The unavailable
matter, or that which dies from mad
vertence on the part of the sender, is
that which is held for postage, which
has illegible, incorrect, or insufficient
addresses, or where the matter is placed
in the mails contrary to the postal laws
and regulations, as, for instance, de-
structive matter and obscene matter.
Now, the other class, or dead matter
proper, is such matter as, having
reached the Office of distribution, is
either unclaimed or refused by the party
addressed, or which, from its nature.
or because of indefinite or Fictitious
address, can not be delivered. The
classification above referred to is made
after the matter reaches the Dead-Let-
ter Office, where it comes every day in
great sacks from all parts of the country.
The sacks are shot up STAIRS by an
elevator into a great hall with lofty
ceiling running through two stories.
The floor of this hall is covered with
desks, long tables and sacks, full and
empty. There is a busy corps of
clerks, some armed with sharp, glitter
ing knives and others bending over
ledgers. A wide gallery runs around
the hall, supported by spiral columns,
and dark green curtain above the
iron railing shuts off from view the
clerks occupying the gallery, who are
mostly ladies. The sacks come piling
in, and each days mail brings over 16,-
600 letters and packages the year
around. One hundred and four pairs
of brisk hands seize upon this mass of
material, and in short time it is ar
ranged, classified and the records made
up, SO that all that enters the Office can
be accounted for.
There were over 100000 pieces of
mail matter received at the office last
year, an increase of about five per cent.
over that received during the previous
year. Of this number over 4.O00.OOO
pieces are dead matter, pure and simple,
100000 being ordinary unclaimed
letters.
The letters find their way to the
openers desk, which is long table
divided into compartments by low
wooden partitions, and before each of
the compartments sits clerk. There
are eleven openers at present. Their
business is to open letters. To read
letter is not only against the regula-
tons of the Office, but against the law.
All day long they are obliged to sit
there, thrusting their long-pointed knife
blades into one corner of the envelope
and then ripping it open, remove the
contents, fold it with the envelope, and
place it in a pile on their desks, and
then go on thenext But there are no
women at that desk. They are all men
and old men at that. Staid, sober,
steady-going men, fathers of families,
and patriarchs in the church. For it is
not alone the temptations of curiosity
that have to be encountered at the
openers desk. If that were all,
women would, no doubt, have been adj
mitted to the fraternity long before this.
The women already number three
fourths of the clerical force of the office,
and in their lofty perch in the gallery
they examine the opened letters for the
address of the writer, or some evidence
upon which to base q reasonable con-
clusion as to the origin or destination
OF the letters. They are not debarred,
therefore. from the openers table on
account of an alleged preponderance Of